Mecha and Monsters from Dai-Guard
The following is a list of the many mecha and monsters that appeared in the 1999 anime series Dai-Guard. Dai-Guard Dai-Guard stands 25 meters high, and weighs 156 tons. It is composed of multiple pieces, which were originally transported to the site of battle, and assembled on location. Initially it was poorly maintained and essentially mothballed due to the absence of the Heterodyne threat. With their return, Dai-Guard is recomissioned and underwent several upgrades throughout the series. Due to its configuration, pilots are required to apply for a 'vertical-model special vehicle license,' which can take a minimum of 2 months to complete. It was stated that Akagi got a score of D minus, which barely made him eligible to be Dai-Guard's main pilot. *'"Rocket Punch"': An improvised maneuver in which Dai-Guard's forearm is torn from its socket and thrown at the enemy. *'Drill Arm': An arm attachment that consists of a rocket-boosted over-sized drill. Unfortunately, such a weapon is in reality quite impractical as it is basically a massive gyroscope, and is incredibly difficult to wield due to the torque it produces. However, the pilots eventually develop the skill to make limited use of this weapon, and it is later seen in several scenarios where other weapons are unavailable. *'Net Gun': An arm attachment with the hand making up a large weighted net used for capturing Heterodyne. Due to the lack of missions requiring the capture of live Heterodyne in the series, it is rarely ever used. *'Knot Buster': An arm attachment specifically designed by Rika Domeki to strike and destroy a Heterodyne's Fractal Knot, the weak point of the creatures. It is a claw with an integral explosive-propelled pile driver, far more practical and controllable than the Drill Arm. One simply targets the Heterodyne's Fractal Knot, latches onto it with the claw and triggers the pile driver, impaling it. This weapon was only used once by Dai-Guard before being claimed by the Army for use by its own robot, Kokubogar, but was destroyed soon afterward. *'Knot Punisher': Like the Knot Buster, it is designed to strike the Fractal Knot of the Heterodyne. Unknown to the Army, Domeki designed the Knot Buster merely as a prototype for this weapon. Where the Knot Buster is a single arm attachment, the Knot Punisher utilizes both arms. One arm utilizes the same pile driver-claw utility of the Knot Buster, but instead of an explosive charge, it is driven by a torque-less counter-rotating dual flywheel attached to the other arm. The flywheel is spun up in advance, the Heterodyne's Fractal Knot is grasped with the claw, and the flywheel is inserted into the pile driver's gear port, firing the spike and impaling the knot. The flywheel itself can be used as a melee weapon, as it is quite sturdy and possesses a greater radius than the arm and more stability than the drill arm. The downsides with this system is that Dai-Guard cannot pick anything up with it in place, (aside from using the claw), and it takes a considerable amount of time to install the equipment prior to battle. *'Great Knot Punisher (Knot Punisher 2 in English Dub)': The upgraded version of the Knot Punisher, developed by Domeki with the benefit of a full year of combat data. Though it has far greater power than its predecessor, the real advantage of this system is that both arms retain hands. The pile driver attachment has twice the length of both previous systems so as to accommodate a claw on one end and a hand on the other. It can be spun on its joint to bring either manipulator to bear. Its flywheel is identical to is predecessor save that it has a hand as well, which is inserted into the gear port to fire the spike. *'Insulating Armor': Special armor Dai-Guard is composed of, giving it a high resistance to electricity and electromagnetic impulses sometimes emitted from Heterodyne. In episode 15 this armor is given an electromagnetic shield to protect it from intense heat for up to three minutes. Kokubogar When the army realized that they could not seize the privately owned Dai-Guard, they chose to build their own giant robot to compete with it. Based on Dai-Guard's design, but built with state-of-the-art technologies, this new robot, christened Kokubogar, was far superior to the twelve-year-old Dai-Guard. However, technological advancement did not help Kokubogar's team- Akagi's former robot piloting class professor and two of his students. Unlike the independent and idealistic civilian pilots of Dai-Guard, Kokubogar's pilots were all blindly loyal and obedient soldiers, prioritizing property and money over human lives. Although its first battle was an outstanding success, the second one was co-opted by interests that wished to study Heterodynes for weapons research, and the creature was captured instead of destroyed. While en route to a third battle, the captured Heterodyne escaped containment and military authorities demanded that the robot ignore the creature attacking the city in favor of destroying the escaped creature - which seemed somewhat antagonized by its capture. It quickly defeated and fused with Kokubogar, then went on a rampage that only became worse when it fused with the third Heterodyne. The military then demanded that the hybrid be destroyed before it could be discovered that Kokubogar had been compromised so as to preserve their public image. Catastrophe was only averted due to the timely efforts of the entire Dai-Guard team and Shirota's unexpected defection. Once the Army and the team stopped fighting each other, the Heterodyne/Kokubogar hybrid was neutralized with minimal collateral damage and the lives of Kokubogar's pilots intact, making a fact of the Heterodyne battles perfectly clear. If destroying Heterodynes was the only goal, that could be accomplished with WMDs. Thus, those who fought the Heterodyne had to possess more than just weapons and skill, they had to possess priorities that favored the populace over all else - even over the demands of the authorities. The robot was out of commission for several months, during which relations between the Army and the Dai-Guard team cooled and mutual respect was developed. The team acknowledged the skills and resources of the Army, and the Army acknowledged the team's ideals - their purpose was not merely to serve their superiors any more than the team's was. All of them - the soldiers, the officers, the Dai-Guard team - in truth served the people of Japan. The repairs were completed in time for the Army to show their new ideals as they assisted Dai-Guard in the final battle depicted in the series. Shirota notes near the end of the series that the Army has commissioned the construction of more Kokubogar units to defend Japan. *'Knot Buster': Originally designed for Dai-Guard, the Knot Buster was seized by the Army. It was destroyed in its third engagement. *'Machine Guns': Kokubogar had powerful machine guns mounted above the optics. *'Rocket Launcher': In the final battle, Kokubogar fires a volley of rockets from its forearm, saving Dai-Guard from a certain defeat. It is uncertain if this weapon is mounted on both arms. Heterodyne Mysterious entities formed from dimensional quakes all around Japan. They form from crystalline hexagons called "Fractal Knots" that act as their nucleus and form into bodies using the matter around them. Although fractal knots replicate themselves indefinitely, if the original is destroyed it will immediately reduce the rest of the body into ethanol. Aside from traveling through dimensions, having Fractal Knots, and being attracted to electromagnetic hot-spots, they have very little in common with each other. The final episode suggests that Heterodyne will never stop appearing, making teamwork between the Army's new team of Kokubogar units and Dai-Guard a necessity. *'Grub Type': Appears in episode 1 at the very beginning years before the main story and later in episodes 21 and 22. Powers include a heat cannon from the mouth that fires explosive yellow energy balls that range from a barrel of dynamite to rivaling napalm, swimming, armor that can survive an OE bomb, explosive melting particles from the mouth, and reformation in a matter of hours. In Super Robot Wars Z2 it is referred to as Insect-R. *'Ray Type': Appears in episodes 1 and 2. Powers include swimming up to 30 knots, spawning lightning storms to indicate its arrival, twin arm whips, using its starfish-like limbs for bashing, and levitation while on land. A two headed suit of it appears briefly in episode 23 that resembles Pestar from the original Ultraman. *'Saucer Type': Appears in episode 3. Powers include levitation, underside heat flashes, and using its body as a throwing disc by ramming it into opponents. *'Glob Type': Appears in episode 4. Powers include being a large ball used for rolling and ramming and absorbing earth to make itself larger. *'Pyramid Type': Appears in episode 5. Powers include levitation, an electrical force field, and conductive mud tentacles from the seams in the body. *'Sonic Type': Appears in episode 6. Powers include levitation and a high frequency barrier around its body that dissolves solid objects although it has no effect on liquids and presumably gases. *'Mushroom Type': Appears in episode 7. Powers include regeneration, sprouting mushrooms from its root-like structures, spawning thorny vines from its head, and launching needles from the head. *'Balloon Type': Appears in episode 9. Powers include levitation and a highly rubbery body. *'Flower Type': Appears in episode 10. Powers include swimming, immunity to radar detection, and a body composed mostly of water that allows it to dilute acids. *'Fuser Type': Appears in episode 11. Powers include reducing its body to liquid, levitation, spheres around its body to protect the fractal knot, can regenerate its entire body in a matter of hours, and can fuse with opponents. *'Electric Type': Appears in episode 11. Powers include phasing through solid objects, emitting electrical bolts, and flight. *'Kokubogar Fusion': Appears in episodes 11 and 12. It is a fusion between Fuser Type, Kokubogar, and later Electric Type. Powers include flight, five red spheres attached to electrical pulses used like missiles fro directly overhead, and extensible limbs. *'Cylinder Type': Appears in episode 13. Powers include flight at 30 kilometers per hour, twin whip antennae, regeneration, and adaption to enemy attacks over time. *'Magnetic Type': Appears in episode 15. Powers include floating on top of water, emitting electromagnetic waves hot enough to scorch humans alive, and tentacles from its top. *'Wheel Type': Appears in episode 16. Powers include levitation, rotating fast enough to generate static electricity, and using its body rotation like a tornado. *'Burrower Type': Appears in episode 17. Its only known power is burrowing 10 centimeters a year and has a body size that covers all of Kyoto. The Dai-Guard team decides not to destroy this Heterodyne, as its destruction would cause the collapse of the entire city. Suspected to have first appeared many years ago and has lain dormant since. *'Spike Type': Appears in episode 18. Powers include rotating its body for burrowing long distances, emitting a high pitched noise from its body, and using its eight retractable spikes for puncturing hard surfaces. It has also been referred to as the Central Line Monster and Subway Slayer. *'Ice Type': Appears in episodes 19 and 20. Powers include flight, floating on top of water, forming a sheet of ice covering its body for armor, heat absorption, and freezing its opponents over with ice. *'Starfish Type': Mentioned at the end of episode 23 and appears at the very beginning of episode 24. It possesses no known powers. *'Giant Type': Appears in episodes 24, 25, and 26 and possesses the largest size of any Heterodyne with its starting size at 2 kilometers in diameter. Powers include levitation, extensible spear tentacles, can hide most of its body in the Heterodynes' home dimension, radio interference, size growth to the point of covering Earth within a month, regeneration, and spikes from the top of the body. *'Black Dai-Guard': Appears in the final episode and acts as the guardian of Giant Type's fractal knot. Powers include an extensible lower half, super speed, and morphing its right hand as a drill and mace.